Case Study Research: Developmental Research

1. Case Study Research:Developmental Research By M98C0238 Camila Wu M98C0102 Ariel Wang At Nan-Tai Graduate School

2. Case Study • What comes to your mind when you hear “case study”?

3. Camila is responsible for P.21-32 • Introducing case study research • Experiencing case study research • Compiling case study research • Analyzing case study research • Reporting your results

4. Ariel is responsible for • Designing case study research • Interpreting case study research • Significance of case study research • Reflecting on case study research • Summary

5. What Is Case Study? • Interview/survey • Individual / a group • A research strategy • detailed analysis of a person / group • Real-life context • In-depth examination

6. Case study is a systematic way of • Observing the events • Compiling the data • analyzing information • reporting the results.

7. Case Study Research • Careful study of the cases of individulas learning a language • A long history • Play major roles in different disciplines • Piaget and Freud—kids’ mental and social development

8. Case Studies • Case study research intensive study--- background/status/interaction • Developmental research Investigation of patterns / sequences of growth and change

9. Experiencing case study research • Linguists observe and record their children’s verbal behavior in learning 1st and 2nd language---published the observations • Raised some questions---degree to which patterns of 1st and 2nd language development (dis/similar) • Striking similarities in syntactic structures –negatives; differences as well.(Ellis1994)

11. Exercise 2.1 1.Re-sort the blocks of samples into probable chronological order 2.State what you think the characteristics of negative sentences are at each stage 3.Make up a new sentence to add to each block indicating how you think negation is expressed at that stage 4.Discuss your analysis with a partner

13. Findings from Exercise 2.1 • Obvious changes in grammar • Speech segments get longer as children get older • Negation formation is syntactic learning (step by step) 1. No Verb- 2. S no verb- 3. don’t can verb- 4. S don’t verb O- 5. S don’t/doesn’t verb O or Don’t verb O.

14. What are some other signals of advancing linguistic maturity? • More accurate • Punctuation • Correct spelling • Correct grammars • ……..

15. A Developmental Case Study------Helen Keller Why is this case study worth studying?

16. Why is this case study worth studying? • Deaf and blind child learning English • Mother tongue of her parents • Inspiration in L1 and L2 learning • Clearly see linguistic development

17. Something about Hellen Keller • Some samples of personal letters written by Hellen Keller between her seventh and eighth birthdays • provide authentic, naturalistic and interestingindicators of language development • Offer evidence for some stages of language development • Both in L1 and L2 learning

18. Characteristics about Helen Keller” data 1. Clear and distinctive • Easily readable (p.25) • Quite easy to interpret • Uncluttered---rarely 2. Degree to which the processes and sequencing of L1 and L2 development are similar The data shed light on L1 and L2 development as well as the techniques used to collect and analyze developmental data in learning languages

19. Exercise 2.2 P.26 Randomly ordered samples of Helen’s actual letters • Rank order the excerpt from earliest to latest • Identify and discuss new language features in each letter

20. Compiling case study data The letter samples show • Evidence of a variety of linguistic and letter format changes as Helen Keller grows up and her language capability increases • Phonology • Morphology/words changes • Syntax/ sentence changes • Discourse/Text structure changes

21. Example compilation for Helen Keller letter chronological ordering

22. Analyzing case study data • Undertake detailed linguistic analyses of the language Noting changes in • Vocabulary / Grammar • Punctuations / Capitalization • Letter form / Reference • Cohesion

23. Organize these changes in the form of a table Tables are used to • Organize data analysis • presenting results in a final form

24. Exercise 2.5 Noun changes Several sub-categories of nouns • Proper Nouns • Simple Nouns • Plural Nouns • Compound Nouns • Pronouns • Noun Phrases

25. Exercise2.5 • Table 2.4—Noun data • Table 2.5---Verb data

26. Reporting your results • The ultimate goal of your research is to report your findings to the world and to re-shape the world in some small measure • Need to know how you will eventually turn your data analyses into research reports, journal articles, and books.

27. Keeping that final result in mind • Help you to analyze your results • Especially in a way that will be easily reportable

28. The standard form • Makes it easier for interested readers to know where to look for findings or procedures of relevance to their own interests. • Helps assure you haven’t forgot important information or analyses in your study

29. Standard Format Abstract I Introduction* A Literature review B Purpose (including research questions or hypotheses) II Methods* A Participants* B Materials* C Procedures* III Results* IV Discussion V Conclusions Reference Appendices Tables

30. Details--- • Major headings/sections—Roman numerals • Subheadings/subsections---capital letters • Arterisks(*) mark those sections that are more or less essential for most studies • Abstract, references, Appendices, and tables are not included as part of the body of the report---vary considerably in format, placement, and importance from study to study

31. Longer research reports, theses—have all these elements • Short journal articles---have asterisked elements • Keeping the overall picture in mind from the beginning of the project helps you not end up with missing pieces

32. For instance--participants • Need to describe the participants in some detail in the final report • Overlook the need to gather information about their age, gender, educational background, language proficiency, years studying the language, and any other characteristics which may shape your data or affect your results. • Knowing where you are headed in the reporting process helps you efficiently gather all necessary information

33. When to use the tables? • In the process of analyzing your original data • In organizing and reporting the results

34. Wode— L1 English & L2 English These data support the view that L2 acquisition follows developmental sequences and that these sequences are ordered. They disconfirm the idea that L2 and L1 acquisition are wholly paralled. Apparently, there may also be parallels, like, for instance, I-IIb and IV -4; but there may also be difference , as in III of Table 7-4. Differences of this sort, I think, are due to the structure of L1 knowledge, but that, apparently, they do so in highly restricted ways, i.e. only at specific points in their development are they liable to fall back on L1. (wode 1978: 110-111)

35. Several things worth noting (p.35) • A table appears with accompanying text explaining the table and highlighting points in it the author wants the reader to focus on. • Not concerned with pronunciation, so he used modified written text to report his data. • Trying to show the general trends over a large number of mixed participants with mixed data.

36. The Processes of doing research • Compiling the data • Analyzing the data • Interpreting the data • Reporting the data